Love Short Story – When life teaches a lesson….it lasts forever!
Photo credit: Oleander from morguefile.com
Our school life is among the golden days of our life. Those are the days when most of us are immature, innocent, strange to all the worldly life hustle and bustle. There also exists a category of children during school time, who live in their own world of fantasies, a world totally different from the cruel reality of life. I also fall in the same category.
My category of fantasy was love. I was probably inspired by the Bollywood movies as till that time I had no idea that happy endings only exist in ‘reel’ life and not in ‘real’ life.
I still remember it was Monday and was the first day of our new academic session for 2011-12. I was shocked as it was surprising to know that our sections had been changed. I was shifted to class 9th-B and Sandhya went to 9th-A. As our class teacher was making our sitting arrangement, I was given the seat with Asif Khan, a boy who came from Section-A. Initially, we didn’t have any conversations except that of studies but gradually we became good and then very close friends. It was hard for us to spent a day without talking to each other.
It seemed as if our luck was also with us as we were made the captains of our club and we got plenty of time to spend alone. It became our habit and we started talking even in night which used to end in the morning at around 6 a.m. after which we would get ready and after a gap of two hours we would meet again in the school. All this continued for almost two years after which came the most awaited day. By now, all of you must have got the idea of what I am talking about.
I and Asif never loved doing the things in an easy way. I called him on 9th of January at 12 a.m. to wish him birthday but before I could say anything he said, ‘Bhut thand hai ghar ke bahar, andar nahi bulaogi moti’ (I am actually slim). I was stunned by this sentence as my parents used to sleep in a room next to my drawing room where my main door was. But I somehow managed to open the door. Then we tiptoed to my room where I locked the door. He then lighted the candle and said those three magical words, ‘I love U Moti’.
On that day I actually realised the magic in those three words. My heartbeat rate was at its peak and I wanted to express my emotions but I was speechless. I could only smile with tears rolling down my eyes. I had goosebumps all over my hands and face. Although it was his birthday, I got the most beautiful gift ever.
In class 11th, my parents decided to changed my school. I did not make any effort to convince them as they were not wrong on their part since it was the best school in Renukoot. Asif convinced his parents and there was no reason for their refusal as I have already stated that its was the best school there. I and Asif were never too serious for studies but we were always among the toppers of the school..how..??…we also don’t know, thanks to Goddess Saraswati.
The school was far away from Asif’s home and so he took the room on rent…….near my quarter. His friends always used to come to his room and it became a routine for him to go on a bike ride with his friends. He always used to pass from the road infront of my quarter, shouting, ‘Motiiiii’. I, for the first time called him home and introduced him to my parents. I don’t know why but my mother used to like Asif a lot. I also used to called him whenever I used to be alone in my quarter. Though it happened very rarely that I had to stay alone, but whenever it happened, even for 2-3 hours, I used to call him. But doing these was very risky.
I could still remember that day when my parents went to attend a wedding ceremony and I called him. I was sitting on his laps when my doorbell rang. I peeped through my balcony’s door when I discovered that they were my parents. I was panicking but Asif kept patience and crept to my balcony. I opened the main door. My parents entered. I could feel my heartbeats as my father was changing in the room which had balcony and to my bad luck, the windows were open. There was no way for Asif except to take a leap from my balcony’s boundary to my main door’s front area’s boundary. It was risky as my neighbour’s quarter was just five steps away. But Asif, no doubt, was smart. He managed to take a leap anyhow. That whole scene was typical of Bollywood movies.
Everything was perfect in our life. Asif even informed about our relationship to his parents and they had no problem because his mother too was a Hindu and his parents had love marriage. But it was probably the calm before the storm. Both of us probably forgot that there is exists a world apart from our world of fantasy where things are not so easy. Everyone has to face a problem….some are small…some are big…so big that they leave their forever lasting mark in our mind and heart as well.
It was the morning of 29th January, 2015. It was raining heavily. There were dark clouds surrounding the whole town. The sound of lightning was scary. Due to such a heavy rain, there was declared a holiday in all the schools in the town. I was sitting quietly, looking outside, when suddenly came the message of Asif, ‘Motii balcony mein aao….in 5 mins……hum sab dost bike riding pe nikal re hai’.
I went to the balcony wating for him. It was going to be half an hour since I had been there in the balcony. I don’t know what was the problem as he could not inform me due to network failure that occurred due to heavy rain. So I went inside the room sitting back on the bed quietly. There was a chart pasted on the wall of my room on which was written the ‘Mahamrityunjay Mantra’. I was reading it again and again trying to understand its meaning as I was weak in Sanskrit. Suddenly I was disturbed by a phone call which was from Asif.
“Hello..!!” I said.
“Hello, this is Satya, Asif’s cousin.” He said.
“Hii…how are you and where is Asif?” I asked.
“Shreya Dii….Asif is no more now.”
“What..?..your voice is not clear.” I said.
“Shreya Dii….Asif is no more. He died in a road accident.”
“What nonsense…give phone to Asif…..where are you all now..?” I asked.
“The Hindalco Hospital…..” he said.
I asked my father to take me to the hospital and he agreed instantly because he knew that he is my best friend. I reached hospital within 5 minutes and rushed to ICU. I saw everyone standing there. I could here his mother’s voice of crying but still I was not ready to accept until and unless I entered the ICU…..only to see him dead. That moment seemed to me like a motionless world. I was standing like a statue trying to capture his wounded face in my mind as that was the last time I was seeing him. I still regret that I was not with him the last day.
I did not go to school for 1 week. No voice came out of my throat for that 1 week except that of crying. After one week, my father dropped me to my class like a small child’s parent do. I, during the whole time in the school, just kept watching the seat where he used to sat. All the students knew already but teachers, perhaps, on that day realized that we were in relationship when my Principal called me to his office to help me from coming out of this bitter truth.
Life teaches a lesson at an appropriate time. Probably that was also a lesson from my life to teach me the difference between my world and outside world when I was in class 12th, the time when my school life got over. I was going to be of 19 years that year on 19th April. I was going to enter into an adult stage for which it was necessary for me to step out from my fantasized world. That’s why life chose that time of my life and that tragic incident to teach me the bitter truth of life that we came to this world alone and will leave the world alone. No one will be with us for forever except we ourselves. We only could help ourselves for our survival.
He was the First Love of my life that became the Last one but his death taught me the most important chapter of the life. Therefore it has always been said that when life teaches a lesson, it lasts forever…!!
–END–
